


Two Ghosts

by caxcix



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, It's gonna flip back and forth guys, Liam and Niall are plotting, M/M, Post-Zayn One Direction, Probably more than intended, They never went on hiatus, We’ll see man, depends on my mood mans, it might get super angsty then super fluffy, larry stylinson - Freeform, there might?? Be some smut??
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-08-22 15:09:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16600325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caxcix/pseuds/caxcix
Summary: Harry and Louis have been butting heads since 2012, flipping back and forth between loving and hating each other, wanting to rip each other’s throats out and it’s risking the survival of the group. Liam and Niall know they need to do something to save it.Or the one where One Direction didn’t go on hiatus and the tension between Louis and Harry was threatening to tear them apart.





	1. Intro to a Mess

“You have five minutes before you have to be out on set. You ready?” The woman, whose name they just briefly heard was either Carrie or Casey, glanced over at the two boys standing just outside one of the dressing rooms. Liam flashed a smile at her and nodded, glad that she was in too much of a hurry to stay posted much longer.

“Okay, so what are we doing about this?” Niall was still following Carrie’s back as she walked down the rest of the hall and turned the corner, no doubt heading towards the other two dressing rooms that were most definitely empty.

“What are we supposed to do? Ni, they’re impossible to predict. There’s no way for us to know how this is all gonna play out, mate.” Liam was anxiously wringing out his hands, glancing around for any sign of their other two members. 

“Where’s Harold?” Louis’s voice popped up from behind the two and it didn’t take turning around for them to be painfully aware of the irritated look that would be sat upon his face.

“That’s a question we were preparing for you, if we’re being quite honest,” Niall crossed his arms and shifted his weight from one side to the other, “What’d you do now? To each other, I mean.” It was clear he was uncomfortable and Louis was momentarily insulted before Niall clarified himself.

“It’s nothing, no big deal, he’s overreacting.” Lou wouldn’t meet their eyes and Liam shared a look with Niall before setting his ‘dad look’ on the guy in front of him.

“Figure it out, find him. We need to be on stage. Now. Serious, Louis.” Liam brushed past him and Niall gave him a small head shake before following Liam’s lead. 

“This is getting out of hand. At this rate, we’re going to have to break up and I don’t want that any more than you do. They just make it impossible to have anything nice.” Niall let out a sigh and shook his head, ready to ramble some more when the woman from earlier appeared beside them with a certain disgruntled long haired boy staring at the ground behind her.

“Alright, where’s the fou-” She was cut off by the small call out of ‘here’ that came from behind the group. They glanced over to see Louis sheepishly smiling at them and Carrie (Casey?) let out a very relieved breath before ushering them out on the set, the cheering of the fans when their name was announced giving her a moment of relief before hurrying off to deal with the next guest. 

“Hey guys! How’s it going?” The blonde haired talk show host stood up to shake each of their hands as they walked out on the set. Each boy waved at the audience before shaking her hand and taking a seat on the couch and it took a moment for the two unproblematic ones to realize the mistake they made when they accidentally put the other two in the middle besides each other. While it looked like everything was fine and dandy to the audience, the pair knew it could be disastrous for the aftermath.

“It’s good to see you again, Ellen.” Harry piped up as they sat down and leaned forward, clear to the rest that he was avoiding having Louis within eyesight. The fans screamed again at the little peak of chest that came with his half buttoned up shirt and it took everything in Niall not to laugh at the fact that these girls stood very little chance with the heartthrob.

“It’s good to see you too! So I have a little game to play in honor of your newest album coming out. Wanna share a bit about that before we get started?” She shot the boys a bright smile and clasped her hands together, leaning on the arm of her chair. The four of them glanced between each other, wondering who was going to speak up.

“Well, I think it’s probably our proudest one yet. We all have really grown as artists and this new album really speaks volumes about who we are as people and we really hope the fans like it. There’s also a little surprise in there for you guys when it comes out, but that’s all we can say on that.” As usual, Liam took the initiative to speak up and the other three simply nodded along and piped in with the occasional ‘yeah’ and a nod. 

“Can you guys share a central theme or idea that this album revolves around or is it just kind of a, uh… Mixing pot?” It was hard for Niall not to notice the amount of hand movement his look alike used and it was even harder for him to suppress the little giggle threatening to escape his mouth.

“That’s an interesting question, actually,” Louis wagged his finger at the host, “I think a lot of it has to do with growth, really, and the, uh, acceptance of who you are and just being proud of that, you know?” Louis struggled to keep his stuttering to a minimum, somehow still not entirely used to speaking in front of bodies of people despite having been famous for so long now. 

“Yeah, we think it’s really important to just take a second and get to know yourself, really analyze what you stand for and who you want to be. It’s never too late, you know?” Harry sounded exceptionally thoughtful and intuitive, but it was pretty clear to the ones who knew him that it had little to do with the music. 

“That sounds fantastic, I’m looking forward to hearing this. Alright, you guys ready for this game?” Ellen clapped and gave them a knowing smile full of promised embarrassment. 

“Let’s do it!” Niall put on his biggest grin, ready to take on the challenge. It wasn’t a facade for him, the excitement and joy. He truly enjoyed the activities they participated in on these shows and it didn’t matter what the two clashing friends were dealing with and putting the rest of them through, he got to enjoy his few minutes of entertainment away from the drama.

“Okay, so we have a giant wheel right over here,” Ellen got up and herded the boys in the direction of the other part of the stage. As the camera panned across, she continued on to explain the concept, “This wheel has panels on it and when you land on a particular panel, you get to lift the panel and either answer the question or do an activity, which ever pops up. Remember, nothing but honesty on this set, right boys?” She clapped Liam and Harry on the shoulders and moved away from the center of their arc around this giant wheel.

“So it’s a truth or dare kind of spin wheel without the options, right?” Niall laughed, messing with the spokes on the wheel, “Kind of like wheel of misfortune,” He laughed again when the host agreed with him. 

The boys took turns, landing on questions as random as current favorite artist or awkwardest text ever sent to the wrong person. When the latter came up, it was thankfully on Liam and Harry made a face, causing a few teasing comments and laughs from the audience. It was pretty funny when they poked fun at the youngest, but it was even funnier when you knew the reason for his reactions to questions like that. All it takes is being an unlucky recipient of one of those texts.

“Alright, Lou! It’s your turn. Big push, mate. Really throw your back into it,” Liam laughed and nudged the eldest and got a nudge and cheeky comment in return. Louis took a deep breath and pushed the wheel as hard as he could. They watched the wheel spin for a few seconds before it finally landed on an unclaimed panel. 

“Activity! Let’s see what this says here,” Ellen leaned over the edge of the wheel and pulled the panel off to reveal the challenge, “Alright, you have to pick a bandmate to team with you and you’ll go head-to-head against the other half of you guys in a kind of pictionary situation. This will be our last go, so let’s be smart about this. Make sure you pick the one you’re most in sync with cause the winner gets a great prize!” The set crew carried out two eisles and placed them facing away from each other. Louis looked between the other three, an odd look on Harry’s face. He stopped on him for a second before shifting his gaze to Liam and shooting him a grin.

“Come on, lad, let’s win this thing.” Lou gestured towards the giant notepads with his head and each pair of boys moved to their respective places. Liam bit back a comment about dragging him into their drama, but knew he couldn’t say something like that under the ever analytical fanbase. Instead he just made some joke about how they would kick the other two’s asses in a heartbeat.

The game finished pretty quickly, only five rounds in 90 seconds. Of course, Niall and Harry, the dynamic friend duo, won the game and Ellen produced them with a framed photo of her stick figure drawing of the boys together. They all laughed about it and said they’d share it since sharing is caring and their part of the segment came to a close. They waved goodbye before she announced the short commercial break and headed backstage. 

“Okay, you guys are actually free for the rest of the day, so feel free to enjoy yourselves, don’t get into any trouble. You have a photo shoot early in the morning.” One of the management’s representatives met them backstage and informed them of their freedom. Without missing a beat, Harry gave her a warm smile, a thank you, and rushed off to no doubt grab his stuff and leave as soon as possible. His phone was already coming out of his pocket to dial for a car.

“Oh bloody hell,” Louis mumbled under his breath, giving their manager a quick ‘thanks, love’ and rushed after Harry. Niall and Liam looked at each other with exasperated eye rolls, thanked the woman and took their time returning to the dressing rooms. It was too likely that they would have to witness some whispered argument, watch the two storm out to partake in some kind of partying and deal with the aftermath not only that night, but the next morning as well. It really was time to plan something.


	2. Too Much is Never Enough

It took a lot of effort for Niall to climb off of his bed and drag his half asleep ass across the hotel room and swing open the door. Harry’s limp fist hung in the air where it was knocking on the door and he presented Niall with a pathetic smile, clearly asking for a moment of his time. Niall glanced over his shoulder to spot the clock and turned his glare back on Harry when he saw that it was well past 2 a.m.

“Please, Nialler,” Harry shifted the watch hanging on his wrist with his other hand and gave the tired boy his best puppy dog look, his arms slipping around to hug his own torso. Niall groaned loudly, stepping back to let Harry scurry into the room. He stumbled over to the bed in the middle of the room. 

“Ni-“ Harry dropped down on the bed, his arms now lip around his middle. Niall shifted the mess of blankets on the bed and shot the curly haired one a stern look.

“No, we’re going to sleep.” He slipped under the covers and yanked the giant duvet up to his shoulders. “Now turn off the lights and get in bed.” He didn’t bother to wait, just closed his eyes and sank into the bed.

Harry kicked his boots off and stripped down to his briefs, luckily wearing them tonight. He made his way over to the door and flipped the switch, instantly pitching the room into darkness. He carefully walked back to the bed, nearly slamming his knee into the corner of it and managing to slip under the covers next to his friend.

“Nia-“ he tried again but the grouchy Irishman cut him off.

“Good night.” He rolled over to face the other side and Harry finally accepted the message, closing his eyes and trying his best to fall asleep.

 

Niall wanted to rip all the pretty hair from Harry’s head the next morning. He took a deep breath and a break from the constant nagging to get the curly haired lump out of his bed and went to brush his teeth and change. When he came back, Harry was still asleep.

“Harry Edward Styles. If you don’t get your damn ass out of my bed, I will physically force you to. The car’s gonna be here in 20 minutes. I swea-“ Niall was glad to be interrupted by a ring clad hand sticking out from the blankets, palm directed towards his face.

“I got it, Niall. I’m getting up,” Harry grumbled, dragging his feet towards the bathroom.

“Do you have a hangover? Do you need some painkillers?” Niall followed him to the bathroom. He already knew the kid had no intentions of closing the door while he peed so there was no point in waiting.

“No, Niall, I wasn’t that drunk last night. Just kind of sad and extremely tired.” Harry waved off the Irish boy and continued dragging his feet to pick up his clothes from the night before. He very much so didn’t want to deal with any of the fame crap today, but he didn’t have a choice in the matter so he figured he’d try to keep up the happy façade when he got some coffee in him.

“Nialler!” The door swung open to reveal a cheerful Louis and a tired Liam. Despite looking like he already wanted a nap already, Liam still looked like he was in a good mood. He probably would have gotten at least another thirty minutes if it weren’t for Niall’s early morning texts about the HL situation, as they typically referred to it.  
Harry looked stunned speechless. It was a minute before either of the guests had spotted Harry in the corner, awkwardly shoving his legs into his pants, frozen at the sight of Louis. Some days he’s just struck by how pretty the eldest is and this morning, it seemed more so than usual.

“I-“ Louis’s words tripped over themselves when he noticed the mess in the corner. His cheerfulness seemed to recede when he remembered the day before. It was such a stupid thing, the fight they had. It was so stupid and Louis couldn’t remember why he had acted the way he did.

Harry didn’t say anything, just stared at him, hands barely gripping the waistband of his jeans, one leg half way in and the other pant leg lying limp on the floor. 

“Harold,” Louis breathed out his name, almost like a whisper. He felt the guilt settle and glanced at Niall, as if looking for permission. Niall gave him a small shrug and greeted Liam outside of the room, directing him down the hall to get some breakfast.

“Lou,” Harry’s voice cracked and somehow it broke his haze because he managed to pull his pants up and start towards his shirt. 

Louis held it up for him, “Here, love.” His voice was soft, affectionate. Harry cautiously reached out for his shirt, but Louis’s loose grip on the flimsy material tightened when Harry stepped closer.

“What? You’re not mad at me anymore?” It seemed like Harry meant to sound harsher, but he just sounded small. Louis felt a pang at the fact that he caused that. He took a moment to really look at the boy and took note that it was clear he hadn’t slept much.

“Did you stay out late?” It was weird to Harry, hearing those words without malice. He gave Louis a questioning look, thinking it might be a trap.

“I was out with Nick pretty late.” He mumbled, his fingers unwrapping from the shirt. He didn’t want to be close enough to see the ice glaze over his eyes.

“You’re exhausted,” Louis’s voice was still soft and it only took a second for him to step forward and wrap the unbuttoned shirt around Harry’s shoulders, urging him to slip his arms in the sleeves. Harry did so without question, but still watched the smaller’s face quizzically. Louis continued without making eye contact, buttoning up the shirt to the same button Harry always did. He reached up to finger comb through his long hair but Harry’s fingers wrapped around Louis’s tiny wrist.

It was a gentle touch, not rough, not a tight grip. He just gently pulled his arm down from his hair, but didn’t let go afterwards. 

“What’s going on? Why are you being so domestic?” Harry was confused as all hell. How had the older one gone off on him the day previous for making plans two nights in a row, but not get angry about it today? It was even funnier when he thought about how his original plan of going commando had set off the argument.

“I’m sorry, I was being stupid, I’m so stupid. It was so dramatic of me to get mad, you have a life, too, but this is such shaky ground and I just wanted to spend time together because I just missed you an-“ Louis was cut off by a pair of soft lips pressing against his own. It was always great when they kissed because it was such a scarce experience, but this particular kiss was short.

“I missed you too, Lou.” Harry mumbled and without missing a beat, his arms slipped around Louis’s waist, pulling him closer and pressing their lips together again. Louis didn’t fight against it, just molded his body against the other’s.

It was more than 20 minutes before a car came to get the boys but it was clear to Liam and Niall that the storm had passed for the time being. The two exchanged a look and made identical relieved faces. Liam had managed to do some Louis cheering up that morning and it was the reason Louis wasn’t ready to rip off Harry’s head. Niall might have also had a conversation with him the night before, talking him out of his irrational storm of emotions and somehow getting to see the situation with clarity. It wasn’t necessarily rare for Louis to listen to Niall’s reasoning, but it was definitely the less often occurrence.

It was a few minutes into the ride, however, when Niall spotted the darker patch of skin on Harry’s neck.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, don’t tell me you had sex on my bed!” Niall groaned, throwing his head back against the the seat headrest. Harry glanced over at Louis sheepishly, their pinkies interlocked on Louis’s thigh. 

“We can switch rooms if yo-“ Harry started, but Niall shot him a narrow eyed look.

“You can’t tell me you haven’t fucked there too.” Niall raised an eyebrow and Harry looked around with his eyes, very clearly acknowledging that, yes. They did indeed have sex on his own bed. And a variety of other places in that room as well. 

Liam looked over his shoulder at the trio in the back and snickered. “That’s why no one comes in my room. It wasn’t my idea to meet up in your room, Nialler.”

“My room is the closest to the buffet.” Niall pouted, rubbing his belly. Liam just shook his head in amusement and the other two were too distracted whispering to each other quietly.

“I’ll just hope house cleaning gets to my room while we’re gone.” He mumbled, redirecting his attention to his phone. It was always a kick to scroll through social media anonymously. For the most part, he just interacted, commenting on funny posts and having brief conversations with some of the fans about their opinions. He couldn't spend too much time there, though, because it could get pretty rough pretty quick.

They arrived at the site shortly after with Louis and Harry still wrapped up in each other. Liam had to make a point to separate them on the way inside just in case there were any paparazzi within the area to catch them. It wasn't often that they were spotted this early in the morning but they didn't take risks in catching the two lovebirds on camera. Liam slipped into place after Louis exited the car and they waited a few minutes before he and Niall walked in before Harry followed behind. It tended to appear to the public that Harry was starting to pull away from the other boys, but it was honestly more to do with staying far enough away from Louis for his face to give it away. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Once inside of the building, Louis and Harry's hips reattached. Liam and Niall just rolled their eyes as the four of them made their way to the dressing room. They hadn't bothered to look nice since they knew any efforts would have been dismissed and redone anyways. Harry sat down in front of the hair stylist first, his long hair the most difficult to maintain. The other three all went to change at the same time and by the time Niall had returned, Harry was finished and ready to change.

"Oh for the love of god, don't leave me in here with these two." Liam called after Niall and slowly turned around to face the boys hanging out on the couch, play fighting and giggling. It didn't matter how nice it seemed now. It never ended pretty. With a sigh, Liam continued to get ready, watching the two out of the corner of his eye, on edge for the ticking time bomb.


	3. The Girl Who Looks Just Like You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when I first decided to write this, I was kind of intending on writing it as well as i write my regular fiction but I'm not GREAT at fanfics and its my first one, so I've kind of accepted that it won't be as beautiful as I'd like it to be. Thanks for reading anyways, to those that do. <3 I appreciate it.   
> Also; I do intend on bringing Zayn in eventually, just haven't figured out how I want to do that yet!

Louis was flipping through a magazine, not paying a lot of attention to the information being showcased. He was already pretty aware of what was going on in the spotlights around him and couldn’t be bothered to act surprised when it hit the public. The entertaining part was always watching the public reaction and you couldn’t find that in these magazines.

“Lou, why are you still flipping through that trash? It’s been almost an hour.” Niall lifted his fork to his mouth, shoving a bite of food in and staring at his friend with big eyes. He was never sure what Louis was looking for when he picked those things up. He had just started thinking it was a habit he picked up from sitting in waiting rooms and whatnot, but he couldn’t really figure out why he hadn’t tried to break it yet.

“I don’t know, Nialler.” He tossed the magazine down on the table in front of him and grabbed the remote, opting for overrated tv shows. He was flipping through the channels, probably aiming for a footie channel, when he caught the tail end some talk show or something. He wouldn’t have stopped for any reason other than the sound of his own name or that of his band.

“-ne Direction was seen at a club last night. He sure does catch all of the ladies doesn’t he?” One of the women speaking laughed and Niall paused mid-chew, hoping they weren’t talking about the one person he wanted to avoid coming up in conversation. His eyes darted between Louis, who’s eyes were glued to the tv, and said tv. 

“He could catch me any day,” The other one responded with a flirty smile and another small laugh. “Well, on to other news.” The conversation shifted to one of significantly less importance and if you paid close enough attention, you could see Louis’s eyes bug out a little in exasperation before he huffed and started violently pressing buttons on the remote until he reached the football channel. 

“I’m sure it wasn’t-” Niall started up, but Louis just shook his head sharply, not letting his eyes off of the screen. At that point, Niall knew it was pointless to try and talk Louis out of his anger so he just continued to eat his lunch. If he was lucky, someone other than Harry would show up quickly.

He wasn’t as lucky as he had hoped he’d be, but Liam did show up with a guy he’d been hanging out with from the gym a little over half an hour later.

“Hey, guys.” Liam grinned at Niall when he opened the door and based on his expression, glanced past him towards Louis and silently made a face. Niall lightened up a little and chuckled, directing the two into the house. Liam went straight to the kitchen for some food and a beer, leading his friend in the same direction. After the two of them piled up their plates, they returned to the living room and Liam plopped down next to Louis, being as joyful and obnoxiously so as possible. Louis’s face softened a little and he got into a friendly argument with the two other boys over football and a variety of other irrelevant topics. He was so distracted, he didn’t hear the front door open. It wasn’t exactly a loud action, but he wasn’t commonly unaware of his own front door opening.

“Hey, Niall.” Harry wasn’t trying to be quiet about his arrival but obviously, he had no reason to think he should be. He took a seat next to the blonde and watched the other three shouting over each other. Niall watched his eyes land on the smaller one and his eyes lit up like they usually did. Despite the drama and destruction they pulled around with them everywhere, it was a rare occurance to see the two spot each other and not look lost in love. 

It actually took quite a bit before Louis had even noticed Harry was there. Yet, when he did notice, instead of getting excited and immediately engaging in contact with the supposed heartthrob, he shifted closer to the stranger and reengaged in the conversation. Harry’s eyebrows furrowed a little but he just tried to ignore it and started up a conversation with Niall.

“So how are you doing? It’s been a while since we’ve all seen each other, huh?” Harry took a small bite of the veggies he had gathered on his plate. Niall scrunched up his nose at Harry’s healthy eating and shifted to get comfortable facing the curly haired lad.

“It’s only been a few weeks, H. But, I’m doing alright. Mam was glad to have me home for a little bit.” Niall fought the urge to glance behind him and noted that Harry had intentionally sat on the side that allowed him to keep Louis in his sights. He shouldn’t have been surprised but it kept happening so obviously it wasn’t something he tended to remember.

“Oh yeah, I went home too. My mum was kind of disappointed that she didn’t get to see you all but,” He shrugged, his eyes drifting for a split second before taking a sip of his water. “You deserve to see your family too.” 

Louis’s loud laughter cut off Niall before he could respond and he finally turned around to see him a lot closer to the new guy than he had been initially. Liam and Niall made eye contact and silently agreed to find a way to get the two alone and away from the rest of them to sort this out.

Liam leaned over and whispered something to his friend and the two exited the room towards the back door. Louis gave them a weird look and seemed incapable of looking over at the other two in the room. Niall rolled his eyes and took it upon himself to speak up and cut it out.

“So, Harry,” He started, making sure he was angled to see both boys, “Did you go out to the club at any point over our time apart?” He knew it was quiet enough for Louis to hear the conversation.

“Er, no?” He raised an eyebrow at his friend, confused after just talking about how they had both spent their breaks with family. Niall didn’t bother to speak again, just fixed Harry with a very clear look. It took him a second, but it seemed to click in his head what the issue was. 

“No, I was with my mum and Gemma the whole time. I barely came out of hiding a few hours ago and that was when I landed and came here.” He tilted his head, clearly directing his statement towards the upset boy on the other side of the room. Niall watched Louis’s face grow pink and rolled his eyes, deciding it was time to leave the two alone.

“Did-” Louis cleared his throat, “Did Liam go out? Do you know?” He still wasn’t looking up at Harry, but the taller lad had gotten up and moved to the same couch as him.

“I can go ask him, but he probably did.” Niall waved a hand that he knew neither of them would take notice of and left the room.

“This is so stupid, Ha-” Louis finally looked up and was cut off mid sentence by a soft kiss. Harry didn’t put much into it, simply pecked his lips. It was really just a kiss of greeting, a kiss that he felt entirely uncomfortable not receiving immediately upon arrival. 

“It’s okay. It’s been… Rough for both of us. It’s hard to keep this all up.” Harry waved around a ring clad hand and Louis snatched it with his own, wrapping their fingers around each other.

“It’s not okay, though. Why are we even still doing this? I mean,” Louis shook his head and tightened his grip when Harry started to pull away, “I meant why did we think that a no strings relationship was going to be any better? It’s not like we aren’t still disgustingly jealous when the other is off with people. And-” He took a deep breath, “I don’t know about you, but it’s not like I’m off with other people aside from you.” 

Harry stared at him in silence for a few minutes, contemplating how he was going to respond. It’s not that he hadn’t been with other people since they had cut the strings, but it wasn’t an often occurrence and he wasn’t exactly obsessed with the idea of being in an open relationship. If he was asked to quit all of it, go public, make this perfect and official, he would do it in a heartbeat.

He wasn’t sure Louis would, though.

“What is it that you’re saying you want, Lou?” He rubbed his thumb across the man’s knuckles and grabbed his other hand to pull him closer. They shifted until they were tangled up in each other’s limbs and Harry tucked his chin into Louis’s shoulder. The two sat there quietly while Louis really thought about his words before he spoke.

“I think I want you all to myself, but that I just might not be able to have that.” Louis was basically whispering now, just playing with the rings on the younger boy’s fingers. Harry tilted his head to press a soft kiss to his cheek.

“If we can’t have perfection, I can still promise you that it’ll only be you. Will that help at all?” Harry repeatedly pressed soft kisses to the elder’s cheek and Louis just smiled. 

“It’ll have to do for now. And I’ll promise you the same. Just each other.” He turned his head and pressed another kiss to Harry’s lips and they sat there quietly, waiting for the other boys to return. 

Harry noticed Niall peek his head in from the door and made eye contact, trying not to laugh when he nodded for them to return. It was only a few seconds before all three of them reentered, clearly freezing.

“Damn, it’s cold out there.” The new guy was shivering when he came in and Liam chucked him a blanket off the couch when they were all reseated.

“Now that we can continue the night, do we want to play some games or something?” Niall was always the one to suggest some kind of entertainment and the rest agreed, scooting their seats closer to the table. Niall left the room and returned with a stack of random games and a few cups and bottles.

“It’ll be a long night, we might as well have a selection.” He shrugged and laughed and spread out the options. Harry still had his arms around Louis but they were both in sitting positions similar to the rest of the group. 

“Why don’t we call up some more people, then?” Liam pulled out his phone and the rest of the boys agreed that some more company was long overdue. They all started to dial some numbers and next thing they knew, there was an upward of about 16 people circled around the living room table with cups scattered around.

“Drinking games!” The vast majority had all called out when Niall presented the options and he popped open the liquor with a mad grin.

“This’ll be fun.”


	4. Tired of Sleeping Alone

Louis was beyond inebriated now. He was struggling to stop the room from spinning but he also had no intentions of abandoning his drink for a glass of water. He wasn’t an alcoholic by any means but this career really drove him to ache for some kind of relief from reality sometimes. He knew he was better off drinking and smoking weed occasionally than getting dragged into the heavier stuff.

“Alright, lass, it’s your turn,” Niall clapped his hand down on someone’s back. This girl by him hadn’t been around Louis very often so he wasn’t entirely sure who she was but he knew that Niall knew and trusted her and that’s all that really mattered.

“Hm,” She tapped a finger to her chin, thinking about what she was going to say, “Never have I ever…” She glanced around the room, “Made out with someone in front of a group of people.” She lifted her cup and winked at Niall who groaned before tossing back a shot.

“That’s a direct hit,” Niall frowned but it was obvious he wasn’t upset, “Alright everyone who didn’t take a shot, draw a card.” Niall had decided that a game of Never Have I Ever would be a bit too boring, so to spice it up, he added some extra rules. Whoever didn’t take a shot had to draw a card and if you drew a face card, you had to do whatever it was you missed out on. Because of this, a lot of people weren’t saying too risque stuff. If you said something a bit too much, everyone else was going to come at you with something worse on their turn and the group was definitely not that ambitious. 

Louis contemplated pretending like he took a shot and just ignore the second part, but he felt in the mood to tackle some challenges and he definitely wasn’t in the right mind to contemplate any negative consequences.

This is the reason he was currently staring down at a King of Spades and contemplating his entire life’s existence. He would be the first person in the last three rounds that had drawn a face card and they hadn’t worked out all of the logistics. Would someone else choose who he partook in this with? Would he get to make the decision? Could he choose Harry?

“Tommo, what’d you get?” Niall was grinning ear to ear as if he had personally placed that face card in the perfect spot for Louis to grab which was literally impossible to plan. Louis looked around the circle to find that he indeed had the only face card. 

“Oi, Nialler.” Louis groaned and dropped the card face up and tried to ignore the faces all turning towards him with a mixture of surprise and excitement. God, this bunch.

“Alright, Lou. Time to get some quality time in,” someone else from the room spoke up and he wasn’t entirely sure who it was, but he assumed someone he had invited considering they felt comfortable enough to call him by a nickname.

“Who do I..?” Louis looked over at Niall who had been the spokesperson for this game thus far. Niall made his usual thinking face, looking around the room. He clearly hadn’t decided yet how this was going to go down.

“I think you ought to choose.” Liam looked over at Niall from his spot in the circle and the two seemed to be sending telepathic messages to each other or some shit. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint it with his lack of processing ability, but he was pretty sure it had to do with… something. 

Louis looked around the circle while he waited for Niall to answer and managed to count about eight faces sitting there, staring at either him or talking to each other. About half of the group had opted out of this game, pretty hammered from the variety of other games Niall had come up with. Honestly, that boy was always the life of a party and nobody was surprised by his hankering for drinking games.

“Alright, go ‘head and choose, mate.” Niall took another shot and nodded at Louis to make a choice. He looked around the room again, trying to spot the boy that stayed on his mind. He had only had a few drinks before cutting himself off and simply brushed off Louis’s pouting by pressing gentle kisses to his forehead and saying that he could have plenty of fun without getting wasted.

When Louis spotted him, he was standing against the wall, talking to someone he didn’t really know. He had a brief moment where he realized that there were quite a few unknown faces here and he knew he should be far more worried about something getting out, but the boys had learned quite quickly to make sure that everyone that came in was identified by one of them. He had to trust that his bandmates had made sure to keep this a safe environment.

Louis stood up quickly and nearly fell over instantly. He stumbled a little and caught his balance on the sofa beside him, steadying himself. When Harry didn’t notice this, he knew that the curly haired boy wasn’t paying attention to the game and decided to not warn him about what was about to happen. Instead, he just stumbled over to Harry and slipped an arm around his waist.

“Harold,” Louis smiled up at the boy and he was received with a dimpled smile of his own. 

“Hi, Lou.” Harry’s voice was low, but his eyes were shining brighter than usual. He seemed genuinely pleased in this moment to have Louis’s attention, drunk or not.

“What’re you up to?” Louis sat his chin down on Harry’s shoulder, his warm breath brushing against Harry’s cheek. Harry smiled a little wider at the feeling and tilted his head in to press their noses together.

“I’m talking to you now.” Harry’s arms came around to cradle Louis’s body to his and he continued to smile down at the older boy. It was weird to him sometimes, to notice that he had grown taller over the years. He still felt small compared to his brilliant counterpart.

“Mm, you should do other things with me,” Louis mumbled and leaned in to press their lips together. Harry wasn’t entirely surprised at the interaction, but he wasn’t used to Louis engaging in this much affection in front of such a large group. He didn’t particularly have any qualms, but he wasn’t sure if Louis would be happy with the realization that they had made out in front of people he barely knew.

“Hm,” Harry hummed, gently pulling his mouth away, “Are you sure you want to do this with this many people around?” He was itching to ignore this instinct to make sure he was doing the right thing but he knew he couldn’t live with it if he didn’t.

“Hm, yeah, of course.” Louis mumbled, frowning at Harry, “Why? Do you not want to kiss me in front of them?” He started to pull himself out of Harry’s grip, but his arms tightened around his shoulders. 

“No, it’s okay. I want to kiss you.” Harry leaned down and pecked a kiss to Louis’s lips as if to show he wasn't lying. He wasn’t exactly keen on making out in front of all of them but if Louis wanted to show some public affection, he wasn’t going to tell him no. 

Louis reconnected their lips and pushed against Harry’s body until they were backed into the wall, the other person standing there completely forgotten. They stood with their arms around each other and their lips colliding for what felt like years.

Eventually Louis felt himself pressing closer to Harry as if their bodies could meld. He felt something build up in his throat and barely recognized his own voice when a sound trinkled out of his mouth. He could feel Harry’s lips quirk in a small smirk as a response to this, so he squeezed their bodies tighter in hopes of eliciting some kind of response from him.

The only response Louis received was Harry’s palms wrapping around his arms and pulling them away. Just as he was about to break the kiss and frown at him, Harry reconnected Louis’s arms over his shoulders so his own arms could slide around Louis’s waist. It wasn’t even seconds before a warm hand was sliding down his backside and squeezing.

“Uhh,” Someone cleared their throat and the two pulled away, faces red. Both turned their heads to look at the culprit, but kept their arms wrapped around each other.

“Sorry, we just…” Liam turned his gaze away, face extremely red, “Thought we should tell you to get a room.” He coughed as if to cover up his embarrassment and avoided any and all eye contact.

Louis and Harry looked over at the other people staring at the two, most of them a bit red in the face. Louis tucked his face into Harry’s neck and started giggling at the looks he had seen. He knew that most of them were probably regretting the decision to take on the extra rules at this point. 

“Sorry, we’ll stop.” Harry’s voice was far from apologetic, but he gave them all a smile and tried to cover up his laugh with a cough. He nudged Louis’s head a little to get him to look up.

“Oops,” Louis let out another little giggle and pulled back one arm to brush his fingers through his hair. He was suddenly kind of warm and definitely needed some kind of cool down.

“Do you want to go out for a walk?” It was like Harry was reading his mind. Louis was suddenly grateful that he had gotten this particular flat near a fairly unoccupied space of land. He felt safe enough to go take a walk around that empty area without being hunted down by fans especially since this particular address was unknown to the public. He had made quite sure of it.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Louis slipped their hands together and pulled them both to his room to grab his keys before sneaking out the front door. When they exited the building, Louis sent Liam a text to make sure that everyone was out of the flat in the next hour or so. He added that Niall and Liam could stay over if they wanted to have a place to crash. 

_Sure, Tommo. And thanks, we probably will._ Liam responded in a few seconds. Louis nodded to himself and pushed his phone into his pocket, leaving it on silent. He wasn’t really interested in anyone else now that he was getting some quality time with this beautiful curly haired sunshine beside him.

“Hi, Lou.” Harry’s dimples peeked out underneath his mane of hair as he turned and looked at the other boy. They were currently walking down a small dirt path towards a small garden. He didn’t spend a lot of time out there at night and he couldn’t help but look around at the night sky. Since the area wasn’t severely populated, the sky was a lot more visible thus making it a lot prettier.

“Hi, Harry.” Louis smiled back at the younger lad and reached up with their linked hands to use his finger to push some of the loose curls out of his face. Harry stopped walking for a moment and detracted his hand. Louis stopped with him and tilted his head in confusion but Harry just help up a finger and pulled a hair tie off of his wrist, tying his hair up into a small messy bun. After he finished, he reconnected their hands and they continued on walking.

“Let’s talk.” Harry gave Louis a pretty smile, one that was only ever reserved for him, and pulled them towards a little bench sat in the center of some pretty bushes.


End file.
